Close, but No Degree: Rutgers Report Calls for Policy Changes to Improve College Graduation Rates

News Release

Monday March 26, 2012

Close, but No Degree: Rutgers Report Calls for Policy Changes to Improve College Graduation Rates

Your Source for University News

Monday, March 26, 2012

The report calls for better integration of higher education opportunities into New Jersey's workforce development system.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. –
Even in New Jersey’s highly educated workforce, with 44 percent of adults
possessing at least a two‐year degree, almost a fifth of adults age 25‐64
have started college but never finished.

“An educated workforce is important to New
Jersey’s economic viability,” says Heather McKay, co-author of the report and
director of CWW’s Innovative Training and Workforce Development Research and
Programs. “With an associate’s degree and every additional credential after,
workers are given the opportunity to earn more and improve their career
prospects. Yet, despite benefits to workers and the overall economy, graduation
rates are not growing fast enough to meet expected demand.”

Close, but
No Degree advocates better
integration of higher education opportunities into the state workforce
development system, which could expand options for the 18 percent of New Jersey
workers who have some college credits but never obtained a degree. For example,
the report recommends expanding an existing policy that helps workers receiving
unemployment insurance gain college credit.

Cecilia Grobard, a Watchung, New Jersey
resident, is among the beneficiaries of this policy. After losing her job of 31
years in the airline industry, she used the unemployment insurance program’s
benefits to complete a bachelor’s degree, graduating from Rutgers in 2004 with
high honors.

“It is a wonderful sense of accomplishment that
would have been financially difficult for me to do without this benefit,” says
Grobard, who graduated from Rutgers on the same day as her daughter, Talia, and
immediately got a job as an Italian teacher at North Plainfield High School.

The report’s other recommendations include:

Improving a 2007
law designed to facilitate the move from community colleges to New Jersey
public four-year colleges and universities to make credit transfer more
seamless

Identifying students poised to complete college,
specifically those who lack 12 credits or less and provide them with flexible
options and support services, such as online learning and counseling

Developing a formal
collaboration between the Department of Labor and Workforce Development and
Higher Education

Providing
assistance to help students succeed in degree programs, including strong case
management and alternative routes to earning college credit, such as conferring
credit for work experience

Identifying
mechanisms to fund tuition and programs for adult students based on need.

The report, co-authored by McKay and Elizabeth
Nisbet, a CWW postdoctoral research associate, was funded by the Working Poor
Families Project, a national initiative to strengthen state policies to better
prepare America’s working families for a more secure economic future.

“When workers have invested so much in degrees
they were unable to finish, it makes good policy and financial sense to devise
solutions that help them achieve their goals,” says Nisbet.

ABOUT RUTGERS’ CENTER FOR WOMEN AND WORK

Founded in 1993, Rutgers School of Management
and Labor Relations’ Center for Women and Work (CWW) is an innovative leader in
research and programs that promote gender equity, a high-skill economy, and
reconciliation of work and well-being for all. CWW addresses women’s
advancement in the workplace, conducts cutting-edge research on successful
public and workplace policies, provides technical assistance and programs to
educators, industry, and governments, and engages issues that directly affect
the living standards of New Jersey’s and the nation’s working families. Areas
of concentration include: Workforce Development, Education and Career
Development, Women’s Leadership and Advancement, and Working Families.